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Roxanne Ward

Roxanne Ward is Vice President and Corporate Liaison of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based investment management firm founded in 1983. Ms. Ward also is President of the Black Corporate Directors Conference.Prior to joining Ariel, Ms. Ward spent four years with the Chicago Park District as First Assistant General Counsel, Board Liaison, and Legislative Liaison. Ms. Ward spent more than 15 years working as a public finance attorney in the Chicago offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom and Mayer, Brown & Platt.

Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Ms. Ward to the Chicago Board of Education in 2005.

Ms. Ward has been actively involved with many civic and community organizations. She served as Co-Chair of the City of Chicago Mayoral Policy Caucus on Prisoner Reentry and serves on the Boards of Directors of WTTW, the Safer Foundation, and the Federation for Community Schools. Ms. Ward also is a former member of the Desegregation Monitoring Commission and of the Boards of the Illinois Facilities Fund and Congo Square Theater Company.

Ms. Ward graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Service Administration (SSA), followed by a Masters of Arts degree in SSA from the University of Chicago. She subsequently obtained her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

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